智慧人生篇章 第46期:奥运通道 通往特权之路?(1)

 　　The London Olympics has given us new vocabulary: ORNs and PRNs. Or as we've been hearing, Olympic Road Network and Paralympic Road Network. And as from today London commuters travelling along the Olympic network will have to beware of the 30 miles of Olympic Lanes crisscrossing the capital to speed athletes and officials to the Games venues¹. So far responses to these Lanes have been mixed. No one would be happy waiting a couple of hours for the men's 100 metres final to start because athletes were stuck in traffic. But there have been a lot of voices who are worried about the traffic jams, the overcrowded trains, and the possibility of a fine if you happen to stray into the Lanes during the prohibition² hours. The whole debate has dragged us into old conversations about privilege and positions. Of course, no one wants athletes arriving late for the Games. But I can hear some asking, why can't these special heroes catch earlier coaches like the rest of us?

　　伦敦奥运会为我们创造出了新单词：奥运会公路网和残奥会公路网。这段时间我们总是听到人们谈起它们。从今天开始，上下班途经奥运会公路网的伦敦市民在奥运通道上行驶时应多加小心。这些通道长达30英里，纵横分布在首都，可以让运动员和官员们快速抵达比赛场馆。到目前为止，公众对这些通道反响不一。如果运动员被堵在路上，没人会高高兴兴地为男子100米决赛等上两个小时。但许多人也同时担心自己会遇到交通堵塞，或挤在人满为患的火车里，又或不小心偏离了路线，在奥运通道禁止行驶的时间段把车开了进去遭到罚款。这些争论把我们引到关于特权和地位这样老生常谈的话题中。当然，没人希望运动员在比赛中迟到。但我听到有人在问，为什么这些了不起的英雄们不跟我们一样坐早班车？

1 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

2 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。